Ranking-Enhanced Anomaly Detection Using Active Learning-Assisted Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoders

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed, Cheney, James, Rahwan, Talal
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed
Cheney, James
Rahwan, Talal
author_facet Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed
Cheney, James
Rahwan, Talal
contents Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) pose a significant challenge in cybersecurity due to their stealthy and long-term nature. Modern supervised learning methods require extensive labeled data, which is often scarce in real-world cybersecurity environments. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach that leverages AutoEncoders for unsupervised anomaly detection, augmented by active learning to iteratively improve the detection of APT anomalies. By selectively querying an oracle for labels on uncertain or ambiguous samples, we minimize labeling costs while improving detection rates, enabling the model to improve its detection accuracy with minimal data while reducing the need for extensive manual labeling. We provide a detailed formulation of the proposed Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoder-based anomaly detection framework and show how the active learning loop iteratively enhances the model. The framework is evaluated on real-world imbalanced provenance trace databases produced by the DARPA Transparent Computing program, where APT-like attacks constitute as little as 0.004\% of the data. The datasets span multiple operating systems, including Android, Linux, BSD, and Windows, and cover two attack scenarios. The results have shown significant improvements in detection rates during active learning and better performance compared to other existing approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_20480
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publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ranking-Enhanced Anomaly Detection Using Active Learning-Assisted Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoders
Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed
Cheney, James
Rahwan, Talal
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) pose a significant challenge in cybersecurity due to their stealthy and long-term nature. Modern supervised learning methods require extensive labeled data, which is often scarce in real-world cybersecurity environments. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach that leverages AutoEncoders for unsupervised anomaly detection, augmented by active learning to iteratively improve the detection of APT anomalies. By selectively querying an oracle for labels on uncertain or ambiguous samples, we minimize labeling costs while improving detection rates, enabling the model to improve its detection accuracy with minimal data while reducing the need for extensive manual labeling. We provide a detailed formulation of the proposed Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoder-based anomaly detection framework and show how the active learning loop iteratively enhances the model. The framework is evaluated on real-world imbalanced provenance trace databases produced by the DARPA Transparent Computing program, where APT-like attacks constitute as little as 0.004\% of the data. The datasets span multiple operating systems, including Android, Linux, BSD, and Windows, and cover two attack scenarios. The results have shown significant improvements in detection rates during active learning and better performance compared to other existing approaches.
title Ranking-Enhanced Anomaly Detection Using Active Learning-Assisted Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoders
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20480